Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Clare Rendell Email: c.rendell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

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Items
No. Item

17.

Apologies

18.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr L Baker

    All Items

    Cheddon Fitzpaine & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Lloyd

    All Items

    Wellington & Sampford Arundel

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr D Perry

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr V Stock-Williams

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr T Venner

    All Items

    Minehead

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr A Wedderkopp

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

19.

Public Participation - To receive only in relation to the business for the Extraordinary Meeting

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

     

    Temporary measures during the Coronavirus Pandemic

    Due to the Government guidance on measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), we will holding meetings in a virtual manner which will be live webcast on our website. Members of the public will still be able to register to speak and ask questions, which will then be read out by the Governance and Democracy Case Manager during Public Question Time and will either be answered by the Chair of the Committee, or the relevant Portfolio Holder, or be followed up with a written response.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    No members of the public had requested to speak on any item on the agenda.

20.

SWAP Internal Audit - Independent External Assessment Report 2020 pdf icon PDF 300 KB

21.

Draft Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 296 KB

    The purpose of the report is to present the Committee with the Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 (Appendix A) and accompanying Action Plan (Appendix B).

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·       Councillors queried where they could find the Annual Report mentioned on page 35 of the agenda.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that she would add it to the library section of Mod.Gov for Councillors to access.

    ·       Councillors queried when they would see the results from the Performance Report.

    The Director for Internal Operations advised that the scorecard could be brought to the next meeting of the Committee, but that it was normally taken to the Scrutiny Committee and the Executive for debate.

    ·       Concern was raised on some of the deadline dates stated in the report for work to be carried out on the improvement on public participation and transparency.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that the work had already been carried out, but that it required sign off by the Constitutional Working Group.  She was aware that officers needed to be clearer on why some items were discussed in confidential session and she was keen to get the necessary work signed off and publicised.

    ·       Councillors queried whether their training schedules had been compiled and when their 1-2-1s would resume.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that the 1-2-1s were postponed due to the lockdown period caused by the Covid Pandemic, however, officers were due to reschedule them via Zoom virtual sessions, which would help gather the information required to draft a comprehensive training programme for Councillors.

    ·       Councillors requested sight of the induction packs from the start of the municipal year.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that they were available on Mod.Gov for Councillors to view and that information was normally added to the system after all the member briefings, so that Councillors had access to all the information.

    ·       Concern was raised that Councillors would not receive the risk management training by the deadline date stated in the report.

    The Monitoring Officer understood their concern but advised that action was required if Councillors were expected to act upon recommendations included within the committee reports.

    ·       Councillors requested clarity on who they should contact for certain queries and what their limitations were as Councillors.

    The Monitoring Officer gave clarification that Councillors should contact either the Member Case Manager or a member of the Governance Team if they were unsure who to contact within the Authority.

    ·       Concern was raised that officers assumed Councillors knew certain rules and procedures, which they didn’t know and that some clarification was required.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that she hoped this would be picked up through the Councillor 1-2-1s when they were carried out.

    ·       Concern was raised that both Councillors and officers were not aware of what the Corporate Objectives were and how that was fed down from the Chief Executive and Senior Management Team.

    The Monitoring Officer advised that the Chief Executive had carried out several staff briefings during lockdown, which had been recorded and sent out to all staff and uploaded to Sharepoint for staff to access, along with any email communications that had been sent out.  The information given to staff was also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Consultation on National Model Code of Conduct pdf icon PDF 225 KB

23.

Information Management Update

    A short presentation regarding the SWT Information and Records Management Programme.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·       Councillors appreciated that the organisation required to take action but requested clarification on the information Councillors held on their devices.

    The Digital Modernisation Programme Officer advised that she would carry out training for Councillors as they would be held to account to the same retention schedule used for personal data.

    ·       Councillors queried whether the training carried out by officers had been compulsory.

    The Digital Modernisation Programme Officer advised that the Teams training had been compulsory and that she was now working with individual departments to ensure that officers had been trained in the other areas on data retention.  A culture change was required and would need to be embedded within the organisation.  They had also tracked who had attended the training so that the information could be fed back to the Directors, so they could follow up with officers and ensure the necessary work was carried out.